Capitol Report: Drones, guns and school finance

The national debate over the use of drones has hit the Kansas Legislature. House Bill 2394, introduced by state Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, R-Palco, would prohibit the operation of drones in Kansas while carrying a lethal payload. Law enforcement agencies also would be prohibited from using a drone to collect evidence.

But the bill would allow drones to counter a potential terrorist attack "provided, the United States department of homeland security has determined that credible intelligence indicates that there is such a risk of a terrorist attack, and a search warrants has been obtained for use of such a drone."

Bill targets public funds to advocate for gun control

A bill backed by the NRA that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to advocate for gun control is headed to the full Senate.

The Senate Ethics, Elections and Local Government Committee approved Senate Bill 45 last week. The measure would prohibit the use of public funds to advocate for gun restrictions at the local, state or federal levels.

The bill was supported by the NRA, Kansas State Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates, who argued that taxpayer funds shouldn't be used to lobby for restrictions on legal products.

Comments

Looks to be another frantic week of fear mongering and social engineering for the state's conservative Republican control freaks. Lordy, that group ought to start calling itself the N-RA (for Neo-Republican Autocrats).

I also would be concerned that the pseudo Republicans would misuse drones if they had the power. I would more likely believe that for now they are worried that the drones might be used against them to put a stop to their vexatious activities that are really nothing more than legal terrorism.

the most serious problem with the drones is not addressed by this bill, and was not addressed by Paul's filibuster the other day.

apparently the obama executive branch believes it can target for killing american citizens, when they are not engaged in emergent battle type actions, but simply are believed to be associated, supporting, etc with terrorist organizations. that is, they have targetted american citizens overseas in such circumstances, as well as persons whose identities were not certain. they targetted these persons without any legal process, without any hearing at all.
thus, due process was lost, and the executive branch was acting alone.

sadly, "terrorist threat" might get the federal armed drones past this proposed kansas bill, without judicial review, without due process.

The bill regarding law enforcement use of aerial drones is very simple at this stage. I can't necessarily agree with it at this point. New technologies should be embraced. Rules regarding their use should be enforced. But prohibiting them in such simple terms seems sloppy.

I wonder if an individual or private organization would run into much trouble using them or surveillance purposes. Would a gun some guy wired to his quadcopter fall under the second amendment?

"The bill was supported by the NRA, Kansas State Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates, who argued that taxpayer funds shouldn't be used to lobby for restrictions on legal products."

And by the same reasoning – since our legislators are all bright, logical and ethical – we should soon see a bill to ban use of taxpayer funds to lobby for restrictions on services that are legal. It will be interesting to see these same legislators get up and argue that no public money should be used to lobby for restrictions on abortion or adult businesses.

But will we ever see fair, logical, and ethical behavior from this legislature? Will we see laws that are passed to protect freedom of speech and democracy rather than to curtail them? Will we see this legislature act to preserve American values rather than spit on them?

Forget Ad Astra per Aspera. The new Kansas motto is: "I disagree with what you say, and I will fight to the death to restrict you from saying it."

Lethal drones? That's what we are concerned about in the midst of the legislatively created fiscal crisis? So, who is going to be designated to track those drones over Kansas air space and shoot them down when they violate the sovereign will of the Kansas Legislature?

I think that as much as the left likes to babble about the right no longer being true conservatives, they have been taken over by “progressives” and are losing their true liberal point of view. Their favorite government programs are much more important to them than individual liberty. You would think by now they would realize that every government program comes with unintended consequences that will almost always create less freedom and opportunity; or maybe they do and they are OK with that.

How can the State Legislature ban lobbying for restrictions on gun ownership, while not simultaneously banning lobbying against restrictions on gun ownership? The same Constitutional principals of free speech would need to apply in both cases.

Of course, such legislation is a tacit admission by the NRA and its cronies in the State Legislature that lobbying for restrictions on gun ownership is very likely to be persuasive. Otherwise, why go to such lengths, even to the point of enacting restrictions on the First Amendment, in order to keep their fellow legislators from even hearing arguments contrary to their own.